Tuan Nguyen

About Me

I am an associate professor in the College of Education at Kansas State University. My PhD is in Leadership and Policy Studies from the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. My research interests include teacher leadership and school improvement, teacher policy and teacher labor market, and financial aid and postsecondary success. I taught middle and high school math for seven years in St. Louis, Missouri. I hold a dual-degree in Math and Physics from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Washington University in St. Louis.

As an instructor I am attentive to the ways in which students’ current knowledge can be built upon to help master the course content. By adopting a variety of instructional techniques and student supports, I strive to impart my love of learning to students and to leave students with a strong knowledge base that they can apply to real world problems. My previous experiences, including seven years of experience teaching mathematics at the secondary level, have prepared me to teach and work with students from diverse backgrounds and in a variety of settings.

For more than the decade that I have been involved in education as a secondary teacher and as a graduate student in education policy and leadership, I have had had strong interests in issues of diversity and equity. From my experience as a teacher, and graduate training and research, I have learned that diversity and equity issues are not secondary but rather, they require constant commitment and examination. I aim to conduct research that is committed to studying issues of social equity, to promote student learning grounded in diverse backgrounds, and to provide mentoring and guidance for graduate students, particularly those from underrepresented groups.